"Is it the name of an elegant horned animal?"
"No, it is not a stag."
"Is it useful to schoolboys and girls?"
"Yes, it is a bag."
RULE OF CONTRARY.
Almost any number may play at this game if, instead of being supplied with a pocket-handkerchief, as is generally the case, a small tablecloth be used instead. All stand round, and each person takes hold of the cloth with one hand. One person acting as leader, while holding the cloth with the left hand, pretends with the right hand to make mysterious characters on the cloth, at the same time pronouncing the following rigmarole:—"Here we go round by the rule of contrary. When I say 'Hold fast,' you must let go. When I say 'Let go,' you must hold fast." Then crying either "Let go" or "Hold fast," the party must do exactly contrary to what they are told; any one who should fail to do so must pay a forfeit.
RUSSIAN GOSSIP.
This game is quite as interesting, and perhaps a little more modern than many of those that have been so long established. First of all, the young people take their seats next each other in a circle. The one at the end then relates to his neighbour some little incident, a piece of news he has heard, an anecdote, or anything else that may occur to him. The neighbour then relates it to the next person, who relates it to his neighbour, and so on until every one of the party has heard the story. The last person who has been communicated with then repeats what has been told him, and very amusing it generally is to find how totally unlike the original the incident has become, after being cropped and added to by the different narrators.